"You…where are we now?"
"I…I don't know, my lord…"
The Hylian crumpled to the ground as the bolt of magic shot through his chest. Necron turned to the next in line. "You…where are we now?"
"We…we are closer to your great goal, my lord…"
This one also fell to the ground, but only because a heavy gauntlet knocked the wind from him. "That is correct, fool. But I want to know how close we are to my great goal. None of you can tell me. Do you know why?" He was met with silence. "I will tell you why: because you are all fools. Moronic, inept, fools. And because I am surrounded by such fools, the Chosen are all but breathing down our necks!"
He spun on his remaining soldiers. Many of their number had been killed in the skirmish with the giant sandworms in the previous desert environment. They now rested on a wide-open plain. "The delay caused by those wretched beasts has destroyed any lead we might have had on those children! And why were we delayed?" He stalked through the silent crowd and grabbed a rat-man by the throat and squeezed. "Because our scouts 'missed' them." He released his grip on the lifeless body.
Suddenly, he spun to his right, skull-faced mask gazing on one ugly Hylian. "What was that? I didn't quite hear you."
The Hylian stammered, trying to form words that would surely get him killed. "I…I…I…I was merely wondering, oh great, powerful lord, how even one so wise as yourself could know the Chosen were following."
Necron just stared at the man, the mask betraying no sign of the thoughts going on behind hit. Casually, he raised his right arm and removed his gauntlet. The gesture was accompanied by a small gasp from the soldiers; it was the most flesh their leader had ever shown. He stepped up to the man and punched him square in the nose. The man fell to the ground, clutching his hands to the bleeding organ. Necron grabbed the man by his tunic, lifted him up, and began pummeling him with his bare hand. The others didn't make a sound; they just listened to the sound of their comrade's skull being crushed under the assault.
Finally, after the man's face could hardly be called even that, Necron dropped the body and fastened the gauntlet back over his bloodied hand. "Shumbo has not returned after two weeks," he explained to the crowd. "Which means he is dead. The scouting parties we sent to find him have not returned. Which means they are dead. Which means at least one of those brats is still alive. WHICH MEANS THAT THERE IS STILL A CHANCE THEY MAY SUCCEED! NEED I SAY MORE?" Again, he was met with silence. Their lord had become more and more unstable since the day he had sent Shumbo to kill the Chosen, and he had killed many of his own men out of anger. The survivors knew better than to speak their minds.
"All of you, in the sky," he ordered. "We are still on the same course. It is only a matter of time before the Triforce is mine. We will go on until every last one of you drops, and be warned that the failure and incompetence of any of you is not an option. I will not be so forgiving next time." With that, he mounted his air-bike and rose into the air, followed quickly by his dwindling army.
None of them bothered to look back.
* * *
"You're sure they haven't spotted us?"
"Positive. Don't worry, Malon. Your plan will work."
Malon and Shrike could see Necron and his followers off in the distance. At full speed they could be caught up in less than five minutes. "Is everyone in position?" Malon asked. "I want to make sure our little surprise has its full effect."
Shrike nodded. "Zakro and Numaru are already flying underneath them with the 'surprise', and Mattalla's ready from above. We'll come in from behind and finish the job off."
"Are you sure you have enough pellets?"
Shrike chuckled and reached over from his bike to pat Malon on the shoulder. "Don't worry. Everything will go perfectly."
Malon clasped his hand in hers and smiled. "I hope so, Shrike." Then her face hardened. "Alright, I can see the border on the horizon. If it's what I think it is, then we should have no problems with our escape. As long as we stick to the plan, everything should be okay." She kissed her fingertips and touched them to the green strip of cloth wrapped around her left bicep, and Shrike did the same. The others were probably also doing it. It was a habit they had fallen into at the beginning and end of each battle. "Give Zakro and Numaru the signal," she told Shrike, "Let's get this party started."
* * *
Necron knew the moment the sandworm leapt in front of them that something was wrong. They had left the desert far behind, and had killed all the beasts they had come across. Finding one in the middle of a wide-open plain just wasn't logical.
His 'army', however, didn't see things like that.
The men flew into a frenzy and began firing at the creature, none of them taking the time to realize that it was flying level with them. Necron looked around as he dodged random bolts of magic for anything else out of the ordinary. Sure enough, when he looked behind him at the rear lines, he saw more of his soldiers falling to the earth, as more magic rained from above. He looked up and snarled behind his mask. "The Goron you fools!" he tried to yell over the commotion. They paid him no heed, however, so intent were they on the worm in front of them.
Then, all of a sudden, the sandworm flew above them and turned upside down. It fell on top of the army, its sudden weight pulling more of them to the ground. Necron gritted his teeth and charged the two figures that had replaced the worm in the air, blasters firing.
Zakro and Numaru flew higher into the air to join Mattalla in his aerial assault. By then the army had regained their composure and began chasing after the attackers. Necron looked back in their original direction. A few more minutes and they would be in the next area, a thick swamp. If they could just reach it…
Suddenly, his vision clouded as a haze of smoke passed over him and his army. The soldiers again panicked and began firing randomly. More and more of their number fell due to random bolts.
Necron had had enough. Summoning his magic, he clapped his iron gauntlets together in a loud clap. The sound created a sonic boom, the shockwave dispelling the smoke and the sound silencing his men as they clasped their heads in pain. He looked back towards the swamp and saw nothing. Nothing at all.
He rounded on what remained of his forces, a little more than seven hundred, red fire pouring from the eyes of his mask. "I…" he began, so quietly that it was almost impossible to hear. "I have been embarrassed today. By an army of supposedly ruthless soldiers. I had thought that this army was equal to that of your forefathers, the army I commanded when I first came to this wretched world. Apparently I was wrong. I have been embarrassed by upstarts and children, all because I have an army of cowards and idiots! I…NECRON…THE SCOURGE OF HYRULE! THE DESTROYER OF THE SHEIKAH! THE CONQUEROR OF NORTH! NECRON! NECRON!" The fire shot out of his eyes and engulfed the first five men and rat-men. "Never again…" his voice returned to normal, the madness suppressed for the time being. "Never again…"
* * *
The swamp echoed with Mattalla's laughter as the Chosen maneuvered through the trees and vines. Indeed, they were all laughing at what they had just accomplished. "I can't…" Mattalla gasped, almost falling off his bike in his mirth, "I can't believe that so inept a general conquered half of Hyrule."
"You'd think that such a 'strong' and 'powerful' warlord would be able to deal with five ragtag warriors," Zakro said, wiping the remaining blood of the sandworm from his scales. "I swear, if that were me I'd swim under a rock and let an octorok use my mouth as its toilet."
Shrike, as always, provided the voice of reason. "We better get a move on. I'm out of smoke pellets, and even if I wasn't that trick wouldn't work a second time. We were fortunate that the memory of the sandworm attack was so near in their memories."
Numaru flew up beside him, also cleaning the blood off her body. "Still, it was an ingenious plan. Though I can't say I'm anxious to wear a sandworm's carcass as a costume again. Cutting it open and wearing it over our heads wasn't exactly a pleasant duty."
"Nevertheless, it was a ingenious strategy," Mattalla flew up to the front beside Malon and gently placed his hand on her shoulder. "Well done, Sworn-Sister Malon. You never cease to amaze."
"Yes," Shrike came up to her other side and pulled down his mask to reveal a small grin. "Link would have been proud."
Malon said nothing, letting her smile speak for her. Once again, she kissed her fingers and touched them to the remains of Link's cap. "That was for you, Link. That was for you."
